A firefighter’s fast actions helped save a young boy on Thursday who was locked inside a sweltering car parked in College Point as his father was allegedly buying drugs.
According to the FDNY, at around 5:30 p.m. on Aug. 8, several people alerted firefighter Matthew Clinton about a 4-year-old boy locked inside of a hot car parked outside of a Target, near 136-03 20th Ave.
After dispatching EMS and the NYPD to the location, Clinton borrowed a hammer from a nearby person and broke the driver’s side window of the car.
“The kid was screaming that it was hot. You could see sweat on his face,” said Clinton in a post on the FDNY Facebook page. “I told him that I’m a Firefighter. Dispatch was called, and I asked someone in the crowd to get me something to break the window with. I broke the driver’s side window and unlocked the doors. We got the kid out, and within a couple minutes NYPD showed up.”
The 109th Precinct and EMS arrived on scene shortly after receiving the call. EMS took the child, who was covered with sweat, to Flushing Hospital in stable condition.
The boy’s father, 42-year-old Jeremie Ram of New Rochelle, returned to the car afterwards, where he was found to be in possession of several Xanax pills. Police took him into custody and charged him with criminal possession of a controlled substance, acting in a manner injurious to a child and reckless endangerment.
